High school wrestling: Bombers an area-best eighth after first day of Kenston Invitational (with video)

By Cory Schuett

Friday, December 28, 2012

By the coaches' own admissions, it wasn't the greatest day for area wrestlers. The Bombers, however, used whatever home mat advantage they could gather to earn eighth place during the first day of the 48th Annual Kenston Invitational Tournament.

Neil Roff (132) and Nate Lewis (220) are both alive in the championship bracket for this morning's semifinals.

Roff pinned Boardman's Mario Graziani and edged Orange's Adam Kirsh, 4-2, holding on to his slim lead for the entire third period. He will face Geneva's Dakota Brininger.

Lewis pinned both Bill Brundage of Poland Seminary and James Hawk of Geneva to advance through to the next round.

"I think we wrestled below our potential today, but we're obviously happy about the two guys who moved through," said Kenston coach Brian Malloy, who had four other wrestlers with a chance at the semis. "The guys who are in the consolation bracket will have to wrestle hard to place as high as they can."

Kenston (58.5 team points) was the highest ranking local team, with South coming in 13th with 48 points. Parma (109) and Fairfield (92.5) were far ahead of the field.

The Bombers finished in sixth place in 2011 with one champion, who has since graduated. Kenston and South were the only area teams in the top 15 of the 28-team tournament.

Perry won the KIT a year ago but is competing at the Brecksville Holiday Tournament along with Lake Catholic, Mentor and Madison this weekend.

"We don't want to have other teams come in here and lay down for them," Malloy said. "This is our home gym and our home mats, so of course the guys have a little extra motivation to do well."

Despite finishing in the top half of the team standings, the Rebels don't have a wrestler in the championship bracket.

"We had four guys going and had an 0-fer," South coach Guy Trinetti Jr. said. "It's good to still have guys in the position to come back, but it's obviously not the ideal situation. We'll have to take it one match, one move, at a time in order to crawl back."

Ducsay's loss was especially tough. The senior took down North Olmsted's Tyler Biggs with 37 seconds left in the third period to complete a 3-point comeback and force overtime. Ducsay, though, went on to lose in a 9-7 decision.

Guinta, who was the lone champion in South's first-place finish at their own Rebel Invitational a week ago, fell to University's Kostas Parrish.

"The positive out of this is that we get to see how we respond to this type of situation," Trinetti said. "I'm going to learn a lot about the team after tomorrow -- about each individual who is still going. How they come back after an off night will say a lot."

The area team with the most wrestlers in the semifinals was University, with three. Walker Chieffe (120) beat Fisher to get there and will be joined by Parrish and Dominic Monaco (145).

Brininger and Jason Huekskamp (182) are alive for Geneva. North sophomore Kenny Hoberney (106) will take on Dante Ginnetti of Poland for a shot at a title. Berkshire will be represented by Cody Charuat (138).

Wrestling will resume at 9:30 this morning. The finals will begin at 6 p.m.